I was sitting in the waiting room of Orion's tutor's office aimlessly flipping through a National Geographic, looking at all the National Geographickie photos they are renowned for, and honestly they start to get a little samey-same looking. Beautiful but single image driven. Listen, I appreciate nature photography almost as much I respect sports photography but when you lump all those images together it almost seems like one big show-off party. But that's when I saw a photo essay by Lynn Johnson about the the Zambian bush meat trade.
I'm not going to say much about that as I am under-educated in such complex histories but I'm a little richer having seen Johnson's work. Her color and black and white film photos were joltingly distinguishable from other photos in that particular National Geographic. All her photos were of people who's expressions she captured as well as her heroine Dorothea Lange (note: If you ever decide to dress up like Dorothea Lange for Halloween you're going to have to be doing alot of explaining. Just sayin'...). And I love her chaotic geometries, too - she probably uses a short lens like I do, or rather I should say I use a short lens like she does so you get lots of yummy foreground. Hey I just noticed she uses a Leica M6. Fantastic! If only I could get my hands on one...
And yes I did say "black" and "white" and "film" and "National Geographic" all in the same sentence: "...when people see black and white they understand...there are issues at hand." Aptly put.
Here's a slideshow thingy that she narrates. Check it out...
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